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Taskerland

@[email protected]

Friend and companion of night who rejoices in the baying of dogs and spilt blood. Wanders in the midst of shades among the tombs. Longs for blood and brings terror to mortals. #Gorgo #Mormo, #thousandfacedmoon.

UK-based writer, critic, and photographer. Primarily interested in #horror and rules-light #ttrpg

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@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

Another push to get people off is prompting IT professionals to write posts about how easy it is to set up your own site.

I beg you to stop. You are not helping. People are reading your posts and thinking 'that seems really complicated... I can' t do that'.

Every single post about self-hosting is literally that Simpsons gag about fixing the foundations to your own house "And if you don't have ceramic stuck-o-lath then aluminium stuck-o-lath will work just as well!"

Taskerland OP ,
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IT is a really interesting profession... No other profession seems to produce people who think that the highly-technical skills for which they are well paid are just common sense.

Even when Gordon Ramsay made TV shows yelling at rubbish cooks his standpoint was generally a) why didn't you learn this at catering college, b) why haven't your previous employers helped you to develop these skills, and c) why did you decide to open a restaurant despite having no training?

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

Noticing an OSR personality accusing me of downplaying the innovations of the OSR and presenting many of the scene's innovations as my own.

That doesn't sound like me as I have never invented anything when it comes to RPG stuff.

In fact, I don't really value novelty in RPGs as I am aware that the hobby is trending away from my preferred style. If you look at my blog, most of the stuff I write about is older and when I do look at new stuff it is generally in terms of 'did this work for me?'

Taskerland OP ,
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@satsuma I think the OSR is a coalition TBH... it's partly grogs who just want to run keep using familiar rules with better art but then there are also people who want that type of game using slightly more modern mechanics. A lot of games walk a tightrope between the two.

@Printdevil@dice.camp avatar Printdevil , to random

For the developing little village of Edwardiana here's two shops side by side, a butchers and a post-office/news/bookshop. I think the bookshop/butcher combo is quite CoC

"Volumes bound in skin might take some help from my neighbour sir"

Scale included for beardlords

Floorplans of two Edwardian Shops side by side
ALT
Taskerland ,
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@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

Noticing an OSR personality accusing me of downplaying the innovations of the OSR and presenting many of the scene's innovations as my own.

That doesn't sound like me as I have never invented anything when it comes to RPG stuff.

In fact, I don't really value novelty in RPGs as I am aware that the hobby is trending away from my preferred style. If you look at my blog, most of the stuff I write about is older and when I do look at new stuff it is generally in terms of 'did this work for me?'

Taskerland OP ,
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I also acknowledge that there is innovation in the OSR, it's just that most of these innovations serve to make OSR games less attractive to me as a GM.

In fact, most modern OSR stuff is less useful, less interesting, and less evocative to me than OG D&D stuff from the 80s and I can only account for that difference in terms of innovations introduced by the OSR.

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

I think the penny has dropped about something.

One of my recurring whines is that ttrpg culture has zero institutional memory and that without institutional memory, shit gets forgotten remarkably quickly.

What I have realised is that each crash causes people to leave the hobby never to return and that is a loss of expertise, sensibility, and cultural memory.

So if I look at ttrpg bluesky or reddit, I am looking at people who are disconnected from history.

Taskerland OP ,
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@Printdevil I think my cohort was singularly bad at storing our knowledge. First-generation gamers left behind fanzines, later bods had websites.

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

I think the penny has dropped about something.

One of my recurring whines is that ttrpg culture has zero institutional memory and that without institutional memory, shit gets forgotten remarkably quickly.

What I have realised is that each crash causes people to leave the hobby never to return and that is a loss of expertise, sensibility, and cultural memory.

So if I look at ttrpg bluesky or reddit, I am looking at people who are disconnected from history.

Taskerland OP ,
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One of the consequences of historical ignorance is a lack of awareness that things can be different because they have been different.

So I look at discourse shaped by a hobby that is predominantly gamist and narrativist and, as far as they are concerned, other styles of play do not exist and if they did, they were toxic or wrong-headed.

As someone who remembers what gaming was like a) pre-D20 and b) outside the Anglo-sphere, I feel like I am being constantly gaslit by the broader hobby.

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

Speaking of Stross, one of my favourite SFF stories was when Games Workshop started the black library and they did a presentation for a load of established SFF authors which involved deeply nerdy men explaining to them how bad-ass all the proprietary beasties and characters were and how they were NOT allowed to mess with canon.

Taskerland OP ,
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Hang Star Trek and their academy-focused show, give me Space Marines Boot Camp with Ian Watson as a show-runner. It would be like Oz meets band of brothers...

"Brother! Doest though enjoy spooning?"

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

Speaking of Stross, one of my favourite SFF stories was when Games Workshop started the black library and they did a presentation for a load of established SFF authors which involved deeply nerdy men explaining to them how bad-ass all the proprietary beasties and characters were and how they were NOT allowed to mess with canon.

Taskerland OP ,
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I suspect this was after they got Ian Watson to write a space marine novel and he had them fucking and branding each other.

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

The Stag and the Hound: How Exmoor Became Sporting Country and Dartmoor Became Haunted https://tasker.land/2025/11/25/exmoor-dartmoor-sporting-haunted/

Taskerland OP ,
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@Printdevil In fairness, I was wanting to write about cannibalism at Cheddar Gorge.

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

The Stag and the Hound: How Exmoor Became Sporting Country and Dartmoor Became Haunted https://tasker.land/2025/11/25/exmoor-dartmoor-sporting-haunted/

Taskerland OP ,
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@Printdevil I think Dartington Hall would make an interesting subject for an article. When Dennis Wheatley and Mi5 both rail against a place it has to be good.

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

The Stag and the Hound: How Exmoor Became Sporting Country and Dartmoor Became Haunted https://tasker.land/2025/11/25/exmoor-dartmoor-sporting-haunted/

Taskerland OP ,
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@Printdevil Ah yes... The Dartington Experiment!

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

The Stag and the Hound: How Exmoor Became Sporting Country and Dartmoor Became Haunted https://tasker.land/2025/11/25/exmoor-dartmoor-sporting-haunted/

Taskerland OP ,
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@Printdevil Devon is really good at records. I got an Eamon Duffy book about the Reformation based on a village in Devon but I kept laughing at the melodramatic tone.

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

The Stag and the Hound: How Exmoor Became Sporting Country and Dartmoor Became Haunted https://tasker.land/2025/11/25/exmoor-dartmoor-sporting-haunted/

Taskerland OP ,
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@Printdevil I drove through there not long ago in search of a ruined church

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

The Stag and the Hound: How Exmoor Became Sporting Country and Dartmoor Became Haunted https://tasker.land/2025/11/25/exmoor-dartmoor-sporting-haunted/

Taskerland OP ,
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@Printdevil That is lovely

@Taskerland@dice.camp avatar Taskerland , to random

The Stag and the Hound: How Exmoor Became Sporting Country and Dartmoor Became Haunted https://tasker.land/2025/11/25/exmoor-dartmoor-sporting-haunted/

Taskerland OP ,
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Bit of a departure for me... trying my hand at some local history.